Friday, 5 June 2009

Welcome to Dodge in SL

I guess what makes places like Wild West SIMs, Neo-Victorian SIMs, GOR, and Star Trek is that in all of these Genres it is normal to have a person or group who exclude people at will. Star Trek celebrates tolerance but it is a very 1950s concept of tolerance based on hyper assimilation. As for the wild west and Victorian culture, exclusion was not just a negative feature of the society: IT WAS THE SOCIETY. With strict social rankings, castes, and limits between castes there simply could not have been a Victorian culture. Imagining these societies without exclusion on race and gender, even a phoney tolerance of Star Trek is probably impossible.

The fact that there are so many people in SL who want to play out Victorianism, or Star Trek, or Gor and so few Anarchists or followers of Iain M. Bank's Culture tells you things about SL and our culture today. I hope its more SL, but more and more I am seeing the British media turn hardcore nationalistic and I think the economic problems are causing a new wave of fascism. And also, fascism is a word describing a kind of radical right wing in service of established order against minorities and in favour of force, using the term in a debate should never make the point invalid. But that is another post later.

The tombs have names, but these are no SL avatars. So much to learn in this environment.